If there’s one thing that any child loves, it’s a good old fashioned challenge. And if there’s one that any child hates, it’s cleaning their room. But if you can make it into a fun challenge, then it’s no longer the same old boring job. Here’s a good example – at the end of every school day, my class knew they had to clean up the classroom. It was never the most loved job (to say the least). That is, until we started playing vacuum cleaners, where the kids would play the role of a human vacuum cleaner. All of a sudden, clean up time was the best thing ever! I would even have the kids asking me if it was time to clean up yet. So, cleaning can be fun and kids can actually enjoy it… you’ve just got to make it into a fun positive game or a super challenge.

And that’s where we come in. We’ve designed a ’10 Minute Mega Master Cleaning Challenge’ for your little ones. They can print it out, stick it up in their room and practice beating the challenge. We promise you, if you can make it fun, they’ll suddenly become little cleaning superstars.

The reason why this works so well is that 10 minutes is an achievable amount of time in a child’s mind. Ask them to clean up their room without giving them a timeframe and it’s just overwhelming. You can be guaranteed they’ll be thinking it’s going to take hours! By limiting clean up time to just 10 minutes, they know it will be a challenge, but an achievable one.

Image: My Life and Kids 

The 10 minutes is broken down into 5 X 2 minute activities. Some of the tasks will take a full 2 minutes, while others will be slightly less. Have a stopwatch going so your child knows how long they have left.

The challenge breakdown:

During minutes 1-2, it’s all about grabbing the clothes lying around the room and sorting them into 2 piles. The first pile gets thrown into the laundry basket (have it handy and close by), while the second pile gets folded and put away.

Minutes 3-4 involve grabbing all of the rubbish from around the room and throwing it into the bin (again, have it close by for easy access!).

After the rubbish has been thrown out, your little one should spend minutes 5-6 on sorting and tidying up all of their remaining bits and pieces around the room. Every little piece of artwork, the piles of LEGO and the zillions of crayons, should find their way to a neat and tidy home during this time.

During minutes 7-8, your child should make their bed and tidy any pillows or cushions. This task may not take the full 2 minutes and so it’s a good chance for them to catch up to the ticking clock!

Finally, minutes 9-10 should be used to do a quick dust and final check around the room.

And that’s it! 10 minutes to a super clean room… who would have thought!

Will you be trying our 10 Minute Mega Master Cleaning Challenge in your house?

Don’t forget to print it out!